Four Days + Four Marathons = Quadzilla by Sean Meissner

For the fourth straight year, I went to Lake Tahoe the second weekend of October for a somewhat “different” kind of running race. The Tahoe Triple is a three-day stage race in which competitors run a marathon a day for three consecutive days. The road around Lake Tahoe is 72 miles, so we run that whole distance, in addition to a six-mile overlap on the last day from the first, to get the complete 78.6 miles. I consider myself a trail ultrarunner, while this race is run 100 percent on roads. Pounding pavement for 78.6 miles is definitely very taxing on the body, especially for those of us who mainly run trails. That’s why I was excited to learn about the inaugural Bizz Johnson Trail Marathon in Susanville, CA, the day after the Triple. It was only a few hours north of Tahoe, and conveniently located on my way home. In addition, it would be run 100 percent on dirt. As I had run the Triple for three years, I figured four straight days of marathoning was the next logical step for a fun and exciting challenge. There were about 10 of us who did all 4 marathons, with Annie Thiessen coining the term “Quadzilla.” So Quadzilla it was.

One of the biggest challenges for me in training for the Triple is the need to get in a few long road runs in the month before the race to toughen up my legs. As I learned the first year, without these, my legs get completely trashed from all the pavement pounding, as they’re used to the forgiveness of trails. Due to a banged-up knee - suffered ironically in a trail ultra in August - I was actually only able to get in one long road run about a month before the Triple. The rest of my limited training was spent on soft trails to heal my knee. I hoped my fitness, as well as course knowledge, would be enough to help me meet my Quadzilla goals.

One of the things I like to do is each day at the Triple is drive the following day’s route. So I arrived at the lake early enough to refresh my memory of day one. Then I checked into the hotel, and was off to the packet pickup and pre-race dinner. As usual, this is a fun time to chat with old friends, as well as check out the new competition. The Triple started small in 2001 with 25 runners, and has steadily grown by about 25 people per year. So this year there were 100 runners (six of whom were there for the fourth time), along with everyone’s crew, which made for a very large gathering at the pre-race dinner. This was slightly unnerving for me, as I gave a brief course description, shared my thoughts on the race, offered suggestions on what to do before, during, and after each stage (eat lots, drink lots, and rest lots - that’s my mantra for the Triple), and answered some questions for the group. Then it was back to the hotel for last-minute gear organizing, relax in front of the tube for a bit, and off to bed.

In typical Triple fashion, race morning started off cool. But with the excitement and nervousness in the air, we all warmed up quickly. The start at Inspiration Point is the prettiest place in the entire event, as we get to see the sun rise across the lake and over the mountains on the east side of the lake. The first day starts with a steep downhill for the first few miles, and this is precisely where Sam Thompson took off like it was the start of a 5 k (we would come to learn in the next three days that this is normal for him). The chase group consisted of Marathon Maniacs Chris Warren and Tony Phillippi, Mark Groner, and me; we were all content starting out at our sub-7 minute pace. As with most ultras, this is definitely a race where you don’t want to start too fast; you may not pay for it today, but there are still two more days where it can come back to haunt you. As far as my specific pacing at the Triple, my overall average time was 14 minutes slower than my personal best marathon (set at my marathon split in a 50 miler). Most others in the Triple, however (most of whom are marathoners, as opposed to ultrarunners), run about 30 to 60 minutes per day slower than their normal (not best) marathon times.

After the initial downhill flurry, Chris and I settled into a pretty consistent 7 minute pace until the halfway mark. That’s where we finally caught up to Sam, and where Chris decided to put on a move of his own. Before long, he had a 30 second lead on me, which he increased to over a minute with his long stride on a descent. Not to worry, though, as the final few miles of the day climber the nasty but quiet Old Spooner Grade, where I “knew” I would catch Chris. I almost did, then he surged, and I almost did again, then he surged again. We did this a couple more times until he finally threw in a surge that I couldn’t respond to. So at the end of day one, Chris had set a stage one record and became only the second male in the history of the Triple to earn the yellow leader’s singlet.

After I finished 50 seconds later, even though the weather was pleasantly cool, I knew I hadn’t consumed nearly enough water, so I immediately began pounding the fluids. As I sat on the ground throwing up most of what I was drinking, I became a bit agitated with myself because I knew I needed to replenish what I had lost for the next day’s stage. So I switched to my protein/carbohydrate recovery drink (Endurox), with the same result. By then it was time for my favorite post-race recovery activity: going down to Lake Tahoe to sit in it for 15 minutes. Surely that would numb me enough so I could keep down fluids. It did. Sitting in the lake after each stage is something I highly recommend to all Triple runners. It’s very convenient, very cold, and very helpful in reducing leg swelling. The first year of the Triple, my first year running ultras, I ignorantly sat in a hot tub after each day, wondering why I was so stiff the next day. Now I know the secret, and I save the hot tub for after the event is over (when I don’t mind if my muscles swell a bit).

I spent the rest of the day eating pizza, drinking, napping, eating, drinking, checking out the Lake Tahoe Marathon race expo (the third day of the Triple is run in conjunction with the regular marathon), and eating and drinking some more. The point is that refueling is very important to replace what is lost for the next day’s marathon. It was an early night again, spent organizing my running gear for the next day, a bit more tube time, then to bed.

At just over 7,000 feet, day two starts at the high point of the race, so it is always a very chilly start to the day. This day was very similar to day one; Sam started quickly, we caught him about half way, Chris surged, I caught him on the final hill, and he surged on the descent to the finish to beat me by 40 seconds.

After catching my breath and a little post-race chitchat, I grabbed my Endurox bottle and headed down to the lake for another cold soak. Then it was off to the nice little café across from the finish line to start the refueling process again. After a sleepy drive back to the hotel following day three’s course, it was nap time. That evening, my buddy Ryan Sparks (my crew for the event) and I were invited over to the Maniac rental house for a big pasta feed. After a great dinner and a few ultra-jabs (Chris is definitely an asphalt-sniffer), I took my full belly back to my hotel, feeling very anxious about day three and my 90-second deficit.

Running day three with the regular Tahoe marathoners allowed me to sleep an hour and a half longer than the other two days. After my customary pre-race breakfast of a pb&j sandwich, banana, and S’mores poptart, I caught the marathon bus to Tahoe City. As I attempted to warm-up, my legs were definitely heavy and stiff. But I was excited, knowing I had a few things going for me on this stage: we would encounter the longest and toughest hills on this day, I had run the triple before (whereas Chris had done many doubles, but no triples), and I possessed good course knowledge. Chris and I ran together from the gun, with Sam in front, though with perhaps only a half marathon, instead of his normal 5 k, start. I warned Chris to not get caught up in the rush of excitement with the other 500 marathoners joining us that day, as we would catch most of them down the road. The first climb of the day came about the 11 mile mark. I was eagerly anticipating this point, as it’s not steep, but just a nice incline - perfect for throwing in a 6-minute mile. I took off rather abruptly, then settled into a hard pace. I didn’t look back. I had made my move and didn’t want to know if Chris had responded. I had to run my own race, so I just kept going hard. The next three miles were fairly flat, followed by two killer miles up to mile 17. I didn’t surge this time, but kept my hard effort, happy to reach the top. I finally allowed myself to look back - no Chris. I wasn’t content, though, as I knew we still had some significant downhills where he could easily catch me. So I ran hard the next couple of downhill miles (at 6:30 pace), and powered up the final climb to the 20-mile mark. That brought me to Inspiration Point, the 72-mile point in the Triple, meaning I had just completed a loop of the lake. I always get goose bumps there.

The last 10 km consists of two bomber downhill miles, followed by a moderate descent and a flat path to the finish. I didn’t think; I just ran as hard as I could. I finished completely exhausted in fifth place overall in the regular marathon. However, that wasn’t my goal. I had to wait until 90 seconds had passed without Chris finishing to achieve my goal. As he and I had become pretty good friends during the event, it was weird to not be rooting for him. But 90 seconds passed with no sign of him, and I was elated. I had achieved most of my goals for the Triple: I won, I set a personal best each individual stage (thus, setting a personal best for the event), and set a new course record. The one goal I missed was my overall time goal. There’s always next year.

I still couldn’t kick back and relax, as I had the Bizz to run the next day. So I took my Endurox and joined the many other runners down in the lake for one more soak. Then it was a post-race pig-out of hotdogs and KFC. I don’t typically eat either of those, but my body was screaming for the fat, salt, and protein they both provided, (I’d rather not think about the other stuff they provided that my body wasn’t screaming for), plus my stomach was a little queasy. Something I learned at my first 50-miler was that KFC really helps settle a queasy stomach. (Thanks to Charles Hubbard at Bighorn 2002 for that tip.)

I stuck around Tahoe until the awards ceremony that evening, then made the 2 ½ hour drive to Susanville. I stopped at A&W for a dinner of more stuff that was bad for me, but tasted oh-so-good, and finally arrived in Susanville at midnight. I slept in my truck at the bus pick-up location, allowing me sleep in as much as possible. When planning for Quadzilla, I originally had a goal time of 12:40 (after the Triple, this meant I needed to run 3:12 at the Bizz), but after the Triple, that changed as I planned to take it easy and enjoy the day with Chris at a leisurely four hours. But once I started running, a combination of my competitive juices kicking in (my training partner Greg Eyerly was racing the Bizz and I decided I wanted to beat him), in addition to just wanting to finish #4 in four days, made me try to race. My tired and sore legs, along with the chilly start (high 20s), a gradual uphill first seven miles, and probably a bit of bad diet from the previous day, made racing quite challenging. By halfway, I finally started feeling better, so was able to grind along a bit more pleasantly the second half, enjoying the pretty scenery of the canyon, the quietness of running by myself through the woods, and the two cool train tunnels we ran through. I happily finished 10 minutes past my goal time with a tremendous sense of accomplishment. In a little over 75 hours, I had raced 4 different marathons at an average pace of 7:21. Yeah, I was happy.

In my humble opinion, stage races are definitely tougher than running a continuous ultra. You really have to take care of yourself in between and during each stage, get yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared for multiple starts and finishes, and have a good sense of your pace. For an interesting new challenge, I highly recommend any endurance runner try a stage race. Perhaps we will se you at the Tahoe Triple in 2005.